Wow. I am just so encouraged by all of the wonderful comments ya’ll have been leaving for me. Your reassurance that the house in Hooterville has good bones and a lot of potential has made me feel better. Even though I know I have months, if not years, of work ahead of me to make this house into a home, I’m feeling a little less overwhelmed.
Even in its less than lovely condition, my husband is extremely anxious to move into the new house as soon as possible after the closing. Understandably, this city girl is not as anxious as he is. But since we don’t plan on selling our current home, there is really no rush to make the move immediately. I plan to stay put as long as possible…until at least the painting is done and new floors and carpet is installed.
In addition, this move cannot possibly take place in one weekend. Probably not even in one month. We have been in our current home 34 years. We have a lot of stuff. Too much needless stuff. I want to take this opportunity to go through everything and purge things we no longer need or want anymore. It’s the perfect time to pare down and simplify. Then, once we have totally made the transition to the new house in Hooterville, we will rent our house out.
In this post, I thought I’d show you the bedroom end of the Hooterville house.
Right off the family room is the hallway to the bedrooms. Is this scary, or what?! This is the hallway to hell. I really don’t like this end of the house.
Really and truly, I am stressing most over how I’m going to work with the dimensions and layouts of the four bedrooms and 1 of the bathrooms.
Sadly, the architect who designed this house put all the square footage in the living areas of the house and really skimped on the bedrooms.
The dimensions of two of the bedrooms are marginally adequate but there is not a lot of good usable wall space so furniture placement is going to be very difficult. The other two bedrooms are so small they don’t appear big enough to even accommodate a queen size bed, much less anything else to make for a comfortable guest room.
The first bedroom on the left of the hall is really small. And really bright! New carpet and paint is a must. Not only in here, but throughout the whole house.
I don’t even have a decent photo of this bedroom, which is across the hall but, trust me, it’s small too.
Because of this bumped out closet, the room is not even 10 feet wide. But look! The only wallpaper I have to remove in here is a border! Yippeeee!
By the way, THANK YOU, Anita for the tip about the reasonably priced wallpaper steamer that Lowe’s carries. I had considered renting one but I never thought about actually looking into buying one. I guess I just assumed they were really expensive. I definitely will get one and I know it will be money well spent!
This bathroom has 2 doors. One opens to the hallway (where this photo was taken from) and the other door opens into one of the bedrooms. You can see the second door is partially open to the bedroom on the right side of the photo.
This bathroom has a lot of potential but I’m definitely not feeling the 2 different floors here. In fact, this whole house has a mish-mash of different types of flooring in almost every room.
As you can see, it is actually a nice size so I am completely baffled why they installed a pedestal sink and wasted the other 4 feet to the left of the sink. Based on the weird placement of the lighting fixture, I’m wondering if there might have been a cabinet style sink in here at one time. Odd. Just odd.
Here you can see how the bathroom and bedroom are connected. I realized I don’t really have a good photo of this bedroom either. Small rooms are almost impossible to photograph.
You can sort of get the idea of what it’s like from the reflection in the closet doors…although the mirrors make it seem bigger than it really is. The room size is only 14 x 11.5.
Neither this room, or the master bedroom is big enough to accommodate our bed and all the pieces of our bedroom furniture so we are going to use 2 bedrooms for the time being. We will put our king-sized bed and night stands in this bedroom.
We’ll put the rest of the bedroom furniture in the “master” bedroom (below) and use it as a dressing room. At some point, we plan to consult with an architect about knocking out the wall between the two bedrooms and opening them up into one big master suite.
I’ve saved the very best part (NOT) of the house tour for last. The bathroom in the master bedroom.
We won’t even have to leave the house to feel like we are on vacation and staying in a cheap motel!
Good grief! What am I going to do to make this better?
Take a sledgehammer to it is the first thing that comes to my mind.
Next time I’ll show you the barns and the 28 + acres of jungle my husband has to tame.
.jpg){kind=avatar}
+R+(3)+tilted.jpg)
Posts
+green+frame+template.jpg)
+(E).jpg)
+(E).jpg)
+green+border+template.jpg)
.jpg)
13 comments:
Shari - I have a girlfriend who has a brand new house and the same set up for the vanity in the master bath. She hung a heavier type drapery on a gorgeous rod and then pulled it back like drapes on a window. It was gorgeous! Just a thought!
Lots of potential, there. Boy, that hallway is pretty scary. I bet you can't wait to get started! There was some wallpaper in my current home and I was able to remove it with just hot water. I was ready for a real battle, but it was no problem. I've also heard hot water and fabric softener work. You may want to try some home remedies before shelling out for a steamer.
Oh, thanks for more of the tour. Sorry about all the wallpaper you have to remove. But the house looks like it'll be great! Take some vitamins, Dear One, and you'll do great! Can't wait to see the outside of your property.
Be a sweetie,
Shelia ;)
Shari, I've just been through all your Hooterville posts and I'm excited for you! The house does need some updating, but it's so cute and the things you'll do will be amazing!
Just my humble opinion here, but I'd save my money on the wallpaper steamer and just use good old hot water and fabric softener. If you can peel off the top layer, the rest will come off very easily with this method.
Good luck with everything and I can't wait to see what you do with the place!
Blessings,
Teresa
Shari,
Congrats on your new home!! Looks like the house has great potential and I know you will work your magic and turn it into a show place.
Carol
Wow, what a project! Your new place does have good bones, but a really bad complexion! Nothing a bunch of elbow grease and new paint can't take care of though. Since your fireplace covers the whole wall, it will be pretty easy to frame out and clad in something entirely different. And in the kitchen, I'd simply paint all the cabs (after removing all the crown railings), install a new countertop (there are some great looking, super-affordable laminates out right now) and swap out that old island for some kind of "found" or "antique" table or chest. And I'd leave the great beams as is. Oh, and that space between the pantry and diswasher... paint it out too and stand some trays or cutting boards up in there and it will look like an "on purpose" space. :)
I can't wait to see what you with your new home - it will be wonderful when you've worked your magic on it! I know it will be a lot of work but, in the end, so worth it. I like your idea of moving in slowly so you can go through everything and decide what you REALLY want to move with you.
Before you spend the money on the wallpaper steamer you might want to try something called Paper Tiger (I think!). Lowe's should have it. It's a little hand-held 'thing' that has 'teeth' on it and you roll it over the old wallpaper. It scores and cuts into the surface of the paper so your water (and fabric softener, if you want) has a chance to get underneath and begin to work. I used it on a long wall of horrid wallpaper in this house and it was wonderful. Only a few dollars!
~Adrienne~
Hi Shari,
Er...uh...its worse than I thought...jusssst kidding! Its marvelous, warts and all. Once you get all the wallpaper down, and I agree to try the paper tiger...I had totally forgotten about it, but it works! Coure, with so much wallpaper, maybe the steamer isn't a bad idea...anyway, once its freshly painted and carpeted, it will look like a different home. Knocking down a wall here and there, and maybe even widening the hallway would be great. I went into an open house last year...it was a very old home, but it looked like a new, modern home, because they did just that...they had to use one bedroom to do it, but it made hallways and the other existing bedrooms and bath much larger. No doubt, it was costly, so....Its such a wonderful opportunit, Shari, I know you'll love it once you get started and have a vision for what you can create there. Can't wait to see the rest of the property...I'm already green-eyed! Glad you can take your time in moving...great idea to go through things, and not take it all with you. The less stuff you have, the easier it will be to make progress in the "new" house. Take care, dear Shari...God bless!
Mary
I just know you are going to love this house when you get some of your creative touch to it!! Paint will do wonders to much of it (and the wall paper down!!) I should send you pictures of the wallpaper I still need to deal with! Oh I found a steamer very reasonable on ebay-
I am wondering if you might be able to take a middle wall down between 2 of the rooms to make one larger bedroom especially if you don't need all the bedrooms. just a thought-
blessings
mary
MiniMad is right. Just pull the top layer off. I sprayed mine with plain water but fabric softener sounds like a good addition.
Have you considered wood floors? We have laid parquet in our last three houses and have been very pleased. It's waaaaaaay cheaper than carpet and super easy to care for.
And you don't need an architect for a wall. All you need is a sledge hammer. heh As long as it's not a bearing wall, of course.
Another Adrienne...
It is a challenge and some times overwhelming re-doing old homes. We have done it a few times ourselves.
But.....there is a lot of satisfaction when it's all said and done.
I feel your pain with the tiny rooms. Our house was built in 1962 and is a big (small) rectangle. Every the living room & kitchen are large-ish, and the bedrooms are teeny.
HUM, I'd take the wall out now, as your redoing and before you change carpet. It's not difficult, as long as it's not a bearing wall.
I'd also take out that second door to that bathroom.
Sheri, you guys are sooooooo cool to be doing this. Some day you will love it!
Cindy@stitches
Post a Comment